Continuing the discussion around diabetes I started in this article about the reality People with Type I Diabetes deal with and what the associated costs are like.

Some of this will cross over for context, but not enough. If you don't know the detail you may want to read this first.

Having been an adviser of 10 years and in the industry for over 20, it's not often I come across things with insurance that I haven't seen before.

And while Diabetes in the insurance realm is nothing new, it has typically focused on the top-level diagnosis for underwriting rather than the reality people are going through. 

One of the most common comments thrown around about the vaccine is, "Do you know what's in the vaccine?"

And most people would have to say they don't know, honestly. They haven't looked that deeply into it.

So let's take a look!

That headline might sound harsh; at the same time, it is a sign of the times where average Joe thinks they are a specialist in medical science after a couple of YouTube videos.

And you're reading this because you're looking for answers on how to pull a loved one out of the rabbit hole. Sorry, it's hard to impossible.

The Covid vaccine appears to be a contentious subject for many, from conspiracy theories to mistrust of science.

One thing that has not been clear and transparent is the understanding that the vaccine doesn't give you immunity to Covid-19. It gives you an immunity response to the spike protein of the shell of the virus.

I've written before about the blunt approach medical insurance and the insurance industry as a whole has when it comes to mental health. However, things do change, and some things have a contribution.

One of the areas that I have become significantly more aware of is the plight of those that are non-neurotypical or better put, neurodiverse. These are possibly new terms for many readers and ones that they know as different names like ADD, ADHD, & ASD.

I talked here about ADHD and my airport analogy with Die Hard II being the epitome of the typical ADHD'er's day.

Expanding on that, there are a few things that would help those around those with ADHD.

For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), we have the spoon theory to indicate energy levels and activity throughout the day. I have something analogous to this, the John McLean Theory for ADHD.

Having been involved with mental health disability claims for the better part of two decades, I've observed many things that those experiencing a disability due to mental health and clinicians on the coal face don't always appreciate.

A level of distance gives perspective. And one of the things I have noticed is that ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is far more common than people think.

You’re looking for insurance cover, be it for your life, home, income or health. You have two choices. You can use an insurance advisor to do all the hard work for you, or you could purchase straight from the insurer's website. Which one will you pick?

Obviously, we recommend that you use an insurance advisor and today we’re explaining the five most important reasons why.

Working through the HSWA stuff relating to Covid-19, I wonder how the Americold CEO is going with his WorkSafe notification to avoid the associated $20k fine...

Part of the HSWA is management and reporting of infectious diseases and other pathogen exposures that can cause serious illness. Covid-19 falls into this category.

I think the comments in Russell Hutchison's post linked here It's great information, but it isn't financial advice: need to be echoed far and wide, and I mean to everyone.

Research and research tools are a part of the advice piece clients need; at the same time, they are far from the single source of truth for making product decisions.

We use QPR and also Strategy Financial Services to give us a view on what the insurance product market looks like.

We've been watching the development of Covid-19 since it first emerged out of Wuhan China, as have most people.

Given what we do and how involved in claims we are, we're getting lots of questions on what people can do.

So let's talk about what that might be and what it might look like. (First published 28 Feb 2020, last updated 24 March 2020)

We've been asked by many people, what do we need to do, and how can we prep?

Based on both Civil Defence, Survive-IT, and peer discussions, we've put the following together to help you figure out what you need to be doing.

One of the regular questions we are fielding at the moment is the question about how insurance will respond.

The short answer generally well, the not so short answer most policies will respond as intended with a few exceptions.

Those that know me and have read what I write know I get pretty hot under the collar about things that impact peoples outcomes. Australia is about to career down the path of something that is going to punt us back to the dark ages when it comes to looking after people.

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has decided that income protection is unsustainable, and it needs to be regulated to be more sustainable. Understand this is from a profitability and shareholder return perspective, not what is good for the consumer or the Australian public.